All the damage in my area (inland) was caused by the wind. We had no power for 12 days (including water due to being on a well). There are STILL downed trees and wires around here, if you can believe that.

Yes but "damage" in your area is nothing compared to what was scene on the coast(s). Yes we had downed trees and power lines but the majority of damage was done by flooding, by the time the hurricane reached landfall it was barely a cat 1..then eventually tropical storm wind speeds. As mentioned above by a few unless the house was made of steel it was not going to withstand the storm surge/high tide.

All the damage in my area (inland) was caused by the wind. We had no power for 12 days (including water due to being on a well). There are STILL downed trees and wires around here, if you can believe that.

No, you didn't fix anything. Trees and power lines down isn't the type of damage he was referring to in his OP. We are talking about the pictures of destroyed houses. Most of those were caused by the storm surge and flooding. Not the winds - with the exception of the fire in Queens.

Because wood is far less expensive, easier to change (home improvements), and much faster to put up. Just to start. A wood structure can be just as sturdy as brick. The houses you saw from Sandy were old, and not built to hurricane codes.

Plus, major hurricanes are not any everyday occurrence. More like once a generation occurrence. So people build cheap and take their chances.

No, you didn't fix anything. Trees and power lines down isn't the type of damage he was referring to in his OP. We are talking about the pictures of destroyed houses. Most of those were caused by the storm surge and flooding. Not the winds - with the exception of the fire in Queens.

'most' is highly subjective.

The 'most' damage, LAND WISE, was caused by the wind as I said, as that affected over 15 states and over 2 million people.

The 'most severe' damage (addition of severe) was caused by the flooding. I've seen the NJ coast; I know how uninhabitable it is.

If talks were going on about the most severe damage, then he was accurate, but he lacked the keyword to show it, including previous mentions of flood damage. The OP and people prior to the post I quoted were not talking about flooding, they were talking about wind. My comment about trees and power lines mainly referred to the cleanup activity. I even posted a picture of a destroyed brick building, so I'm really not sure what you're getting at.

The houses torn to pieces by hurricanes were often seen in America. The reconstructions of them after the disasters are, again, rebuilding the houses with wood. The phenomenon has puzzled me for long. Because they can still fall victims of another hurricane. Why Americans keep doing this? Why not introduce brick concrete structures instead of wood ones?

The issue isnt about wood but for the retards who continue to build so near to the coast that this keeps happening over and over again. Personally I dont think any insurance company or any federal aid should go to disaster victims if they previously went thru this before in the same area. If they have then they should get nothing because they should not rebuild in a dangerous place yet again.

The issue isnt about wood but for the retards who continue to build so near to the coast that this keeps happening over and over again. Personally I dont think any insurance company or any federal aid should go to disaster victims if they previously went thru this before in the same area. If they have then they should get nothing because they should not rebuild in a dangerous place yet again.

with that logic no one should be allowed to build in most of the mid west area of the United States because there a chances of tornadoes.

it's not like the hurricane is a daily occurrence, and it's definitely not always a strong damaging hurricane like that.

truth is, there's no such thing as perfectly safe, you take what you can get, everything comes with some risk, you just learn not to let it bother you

Last I checked, banging against and yelling next to a brick wall cause no sound to pass through.

Wood on the other hand, well, that vibrates the entire structure and passes conversations through like no one's business.

Maybe I just need to find a properly isolated wood house, like you say. Ours is, after all, over 45 years old. (But owned by someone who does home improvement for a living.. only thing keeping us from renovating is the cost involved and the fact that people live here; got no place to stay temporarily while rooms get rebuilt)

Try living in concrete student apartments and tell me it doesn't pass sound.

A proper wood house (you can't properly upgrade an old one if it wasn't built for it) will stop nearly all sound. Meanwhile on a concrete house, the whole house is connected and the sound waves propagate all along the concrete or brick structure.

Actually hitting the wall might cause less sound(more than you'd think though), but conversation, music and movies....

Don't forget that for many months, large parts of the US have extreme cold climates and wood is a good insulator, so that's one reason, even if people have central heating and A/C these days. Ever heard of the phrase stone-cold?

Wood is expensive in my country. Is it much cheaper and environmentally friendly in America?

Once upon a time it was hard to come by, but now it's pretty well managed, and incredibly cheap.

Wood houses can be built to be incredibly strong, if you spend the money on it. Most people want 2x4 framing because it's fast to put up and it's cheap, and it's easier to work with than balloon framing or post and beam.

There are other issues too, it could be they had a rotting roof, hurricane comes along and blows the roof off, and then the house is done. Wasn't the houses' construction that killed, just bad roof maintenance. Water + wind can cause a lot of issues that wind alone can't.